Truemors
is reporting from
Member
NP Rank:
NP Rank:
NBC's Olympic Size Conspiricy
Share:
by World_Groove | August 17, 2008 at 09:42 am
897 views | 38 Recommendations | 13 comments
Photos
Under development -
Is it Live or Memorex ?
I have been a complete couch potato this whole Olympic games. Staying up into the wee hours of the morning watching records being smashed left and right, always believing that what I was seeing was Live because it says so in the upper right hand corner of the screen.
Last night my evening of viewing excitement was ruined when during a commercial break about 15 minutes before Phelps made his Olympic "Attempt" for 8, I popped online to check for messages and I refreshed the news page that was up in my tabs and then BAM "Phelps wins historic 8th" In Headlines.
This morning I confirmed NBC has been warping time during the Olympics and Boldly doing so without a care.
It augmented its stand-alone “LIVE” graphic with another one that said “LIVE,” with the time in the Eastern and Central time zones, and the time in Beijing, too. This is supposed to tell Mountain and Pacific viewers that what they’re seeing is on tape.
? What ? In English please without the double speak.
I never once felt the need to check to see if we were being fed a taped program of the Olympics here in the Pacific Time Zone, because I kept seeing the "Live" banner, and never a long or explained contrary announcement.
Those western viewers could be excused if they were reading mixed messages from NBC’s time warping. While they might have seen the time zone graphic, appearing for an average of 14 seconds at a time, they are also seeing the plain old “Live” graphic far more: 29 separate times on Tuesday for a total of 133 minutes.
I have only seen the "taped" graphic once myself, mid week during a recap. I know that is not allot to go on in making an accusation but it would seem it was placed in such a spot on purpose to give the impression that only that portion was "taped earlier", but everything else with the big Live banner is "LIVE"
I have to agree with Richard Sandomir from the New York Times who confirmed my suspicions this morning.
changes would represent courtesies to the tens of millions of viewers who, despite living in disadvantaged time zones, are devoting hours each night to NBC. In fact, as NBC notes, some western markets are among the highest rated for the Beijing Games.
The Olympic games have been ruined for me. I suffered through Phelps 8th knowing the outcome, while keeping it to myself as my family watched in awe of what might come.
The assumption is that NBC knew ratings for the Olympics on the west coast would drop if viewers were aware that the footage was taped, and therefor they have given minimal effort towards disclosure.
Maybe they should just replace NBC LIVE with NBC LIES
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Update, I noticed tonights broadcast (8/17) Did Not have the live banner !!! The first night I have seen a broadcast of the Olympics without the banner !! Maybe complaining online works.... ... .. . Though...NO MENTION of tape delay.
What is NowPublic?
NowPublic lets people work together to cover news events around the world.
Crowd Power
World_Groove
Cheney, Washington, United States
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (13)
at 11:53 on August 17th, 2008
World_Groove, I like this story. It's good stuff.
at 12:10 on August 17th, 2008
World_Groove, I like this story. It's good stuff. It does make you wonder what other warping of their presentations have been going on.
at 12:23 on August 17th, 2008
World_Groove, I like this story. It's good stuff. I too have been mystified by NBC's "live" sign. (Tag your stories with "Beijing 2008" to send them to our dedicated Olympic channel).
at 12:30 on August 17th, 2008
Cool story, although this isnt the first time a major news-center has jumped the gun on reporting the news.
at 12:50 on August 17th, 2008
Got lots of beefs with their crummy announcers who can't shut up, too. Their choice of programming is the pits, too. Lots of contests are neglected, too, and athletes, and countries and.....
at 13:00 on August 17th, 2008
yea...but On the plus side it allows for great discussion during viewing. The Family talking about the bad comments or wrong figures stated by the announcers. Kinds makes for a "Home Olympic Version" Of Mystery Science Theater 3000.
at 14:49 on August 17th, 2008
World_Groove, I like this story. It's good stuff. They do this every time. Its about ratings in time periods.
at 15:00 on August 17th, 2008
The only difference this time being the "Live" banner which stays up during all sports footage, with extremely rare, sporadic disclaimers.
at 15:10 on August 17th, 2008
World_Groove, I like this story. It's good stuff.
at 18:00 on August 17th, 2008
World_Groove, I like this story. It's good stuff. But this pales in comparison to China's many frauds. Why, oh why, aren't the journalists covering this issue and speaking up about that? Then again, maybe they are--I gave up on Olympics coverage days ago. It was mostly pimping for advertisers, and interviewers' hokey "interviews". Their intruding into the athletic process turned my tummy. As well as their careful selection of what we would see. Bah, humbug.
at 20:19 on August 17th, 2008
World_Groove, I like this story. It's good stuff.
We have NOS. Great coverage of the Olympics
at 02:27 on August 18th, 2008
World_Groove, I like this story. It's good stuff.
Really the NBC banner should read Lieve instead of Live
at 12:57 on August 19th, 2008
Eurosport's been doing the same thing - and obviously editing some of the "boring" stuff out like extended crowd cheering. They also replay the same sports 2-3 times in the course of the day. I will note, however, that they are showing some of the lesser sports that NBC might not be - ex. kayaking, canoeing and discus in full when they are live coverage.